A new NITI Aayog report reveals that while India’s higher education system is producing more graduates than ever, a significant proportion are struggling to find jobs aligned with their qualifications, highlighting a pressing need for curriculum reform and practical skilling.
India’s higher education system is producing more graduates than ever, but far too few are moving into jobs that match what they studied, according to a new NITI Aayog report. The think tank says just 8.25% of graduates are working in roles aligned with their qualifications, a figure drawn from the Economic Survey 2024-25 and highlighted again in recent coverage of the report. The wider problem, it argues, is not simply unemployment but a persistent mismatch between classrooms, workplace expectations and the skills employers actually need.
That gap is visible in the scale of higher education itself. NITI Aayog says about 3.4 crore students are enrolled in undergraduate programmes, with roughly 1.13 crore studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree. More than 2 crore are taking BA, BSc and BCom courses combined, yet the report says these general degrees often have a weak link to employment. Many students pursue them partly because they provide eligibility for government recruitment exams, which keeps pressure high on a public sector job market with limited openings.
The report also points to a lack of practical preparation. It says many institutions still rely on outdated syllabuses, weak industry links and limited exposure to workplace tools such as CV writing, mock interviews and job search methods. Students themselves echo that assessment: 34% say skill gaps are a major concern, 18% point to interview preparation, and 80% say they lack practical experience and exposure to industry. NITI Aayog’s broader working paper on education and skilling also stresses that India’s diverse state systems and patchy data make it difficult to track outcomes consistently, complicating reform efforts.
This disconnect helps explain why government recruitment continues to draw enormous competition. Between November 2024 and July 2025, NITI Aayog says 1.86 crore applications were filed for just 55,000 posts. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has argued that the answer is not merely to expand the state payroll, but to prepare young people for multiple paths, including jobs, entrepreneurship, self-employment and family businesses. NITI Aayog says internships and apprenticeships could help bridge the divide, but only if they involve real training rather than token placements. In February 2026, the agency separately called for reforms to India’s apprenticeship system, and in August 2026 it said the wider skilling agenda must shift from credentials alone to learning outcomes and employability.
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